This fiction is co-authored by UKChuckster and AuditoreanGhost.

Enjoy!

Chapter VI: Dinner with the Bartowski's

"Would you go on a date with me?"

They both looked at those words, both holding their breaths. Both of them never expected the other to ask them out, although Sarah's angle was a little different. Chuck's sister Ellie had told her about it a couple of seconds earlier but she didn't expect this, that's for sure. She expected a very, very nervous and babbling Chuck later in the evening, not this. They both contemplated on the moment, before writing their answer on their pads. Swiftly they exchanged pads, looking at a certain word. The same word on both of them.

"Yes."

Sarah raised her look from the pad, her smile surprising herself. She didn't remember another time when she had smiled this widely. She looked to her left, seeing Chuck repeatedly reading that little word she had written. Sarah chuckled a bit as he finally looked up at her.

"Surprised?" Sarah wrote, with a subtle amount of playful mirth. Her smile got even wider as she saw his immediate blush. Chuck looked away from her, trying to hide his blush, and failing miserably.

"I think that surprised is not a word that would be strong enough..." Chuck replied, still looking at the three letter word. "I..."

"Ellie told me that you wanted to ask me out, Chuck," Sarah wrote, laughing a bit. Chuck absolutely loved her laugh. "I wanted to avoid the moment when she would ask me out for you..." she pressed on, her writing hand dancing on the pad. "So I asked you out, but I definitely didn't expect you to ask me out too," she wrote, her shyness sneaking back into her.

"It seems so perfect, huh?" Chuck wrote, seeing confusion on her face. "Ahhhh..." He mumbled audibly. "It's just that when Awesome and Ellie started dating, he asked her out, but we... we asked each other out," he wrote, thinking about something.

"It's something Morgan and Michael will definitely tease us about," Sarah wrote, making Chuck laugh. Damn, his laughter is so infectous, she thought, before joining him.

Ellie heard their laughter from the kitchen. She was definitely happy for them since she had hoped for this as long as she had gotten together with Devon. Ellie had been worried about him after she had gotten word of the ongoing Jill incident from Morgan.

"Eleanor!" her mother whispered to her. "Is Chuck hiding something from us?" Mary asked, keeping her voice silent preventing Stephen or Jack from hearing her.

"About what?" Ellie whispered back to her, avoiding her blatant question.

"Ellie," her mother scolded.

Ellie then relented. It was more that she couldn't bear to keep the news to herself than anything else. "Chuck asked Sarah out for a date with him..." she replied, before adding. "And by the sound of it, she said yes."

Mary smiled, a thing that she did frequently even without a reason. This time though she had a real reason to smile. "Is he absolutely mad?" she asked sarcastically. "If he ends up marrying her, he would make those two relatives," She said, pointing at Stephen and Jack, her sarcasm very blatant.

"Would it be so bad?" Ellie asked, getting her joke, only to be interrupted Emma.

"What are you two whispering about?" she asked, "Is there anything I should know?"

"Chuck and Sarah are going on a date" Ellie whispered to Emma, making all the necessary precautions to prevent the men from hearing her.

"Oh!" Emma said, keeping her voice low enough. "He finally took the leap of faith?" She asked, a knowing look on her face.

"I think he did" Ellie replied, before adding a tidbit of info. "And I think your daughter agreed, Mrs. Walker"

Emma rotated her head left and right, in fake annoyance. "Mary, we seriously need to talk about your children calling me, Mrs. Walker..."

"It's a sympton of Miranda's father I guess," Mary replied, before looking at Ellie. "Would you go and 'retrieve' Chuck and Sarah from his room? Dinner's ready."

As Ellie disappeared to the hallway, she turned to Emma. "So, it's okay if my son starts dating your daughter?"

"Why wouldn't it be?" Emma replied, laughing a bit.

Ellie walked to Chuck's door, knocking on it twice. "Dinner's rea..." She said as she opened the door, entering his room. Her words got stuck in her mouth as she saw them on his bed, Sarah's head resting on his shoulder.

To Ellie that looked like the most cutest thing ever, seeing his brother so comfortable around a girl. The fact that Sarah was drop-dead gorgeous made the cuteness factor go through the known limit.

"Hi Ellie!" Chuck said, closing the book they were looking at, much to Sarah's disappointment. She had been very interested in his topic. Thankfully, Sarah's disappointment wasn't complete, since Chuck didn't move her from this comfortable position. Resting her head on Chuck's broad shoulder was definitely becoming one of her favourite places to be.

"Charles Irving Bartowski" Ellie said, closing the door behind her. "What is happening here?" she asked, motioning for the both of them. Sarah turned to the right, grabbing her pad. She knew full-well that Chuck wasn't going to be able to answer that question.

"Welll... Ahh... Sarah...and I..." Chuck babbled, trying to find the correct words. Sarah chuckled a bit, joyous in the fact that she had been correct. She handed her pad to Ellie moments later..

"I think that Chuck and I agreed to go on a date. Then, I asked him about his hobbies and then he took out this book."

"Wait a minute, Sarah!" Ellie interrupted her. "You're interested in his gaming hobby?" she asked, suspicious. She had looked through that book. Or maybe yawned through it. "Chuck!" Ellie then remarked as Chuck sat down next to Sarah. "You've got a girl who's possibly into video games," she said, gazing intently at him. "I think that if you dated that Jill person, you would need to get rid of your gaming gear for her," she added.

"I know that, Ellie" Chuck said to her, before grabbing his pen to write to Sarah. "Oh, I forgot to mention. Miranda's parents have agreed to host a gaming night at their home tomorrow. Would you..." Chuck said, before Sarah aggressively grabbed the pencil off his hand.

"It's a date, Chuck" Sarah wrote which caused Chuck's confusion. "I'm not into those formal restaurant first dates, Chuck. I think that a gaming night with your friend is great."

Chuck looked at her reply, giving her a subtle smile which she picked up on."Dinner's ready!" Chuck's mother chanted from the kitchen.

"I believe that's our cue," Ellie said, as she left the room. Chuck then rose up from his bed, dragging Sarah's wheelchair next to his bed. Sarah sighed audibly, writing on her pad.

"Is this bothering you?" Sarah's pad said. Chuck looked at it for a minute, before writing on it.

"It doesn't bother me one bit, Sarah" He wrote. After Sarah had read his reply, she accepted his help getting back to the chair.

"Thank you, Chuck" Sarah then wrote. "I forgot to mention that I'm not opposed to a dinner date after the first one though..." Sarah wrote, wanting to make something certain.

"That's good to know," Chuck said audibly with a lop sided smile, leaving the question open-ended for a reason.

What does he mean by that? Sarah thought as Chuck pushed her wheelchair along to the hallway.

Chuck gently lowered her wheelchair over the step from the hallway, a mere meter away from the dining table. He then pulled a seat from the table's western end, motioning for Sarah to roll herself into the now vacant seat, next to her father. He was already sipping from his glass of Bollinger that Stephen had provided him with.

"So, Stephen?" Jack asked, after he tasted the smoky flavour of his drink. "What's happened to you since we last met?"

"Well..." Stephen said, rubbing his temple. "I met Mary, Charles and Eleanor happened... that's about it," he replied, giving a appreciative look at her.

"Anything interesting?" Jack pressed on, seeing a half truth. Being a representative for San-Fran Banking had developed his non-verbal skills noticeably.

"I founded a company, Orion Software. Video games, cinematic trailers, special effects, computer hardware... stuff like that," Stephen relented, knowing that it wouldn't be no use to hide the truth when you were proud of it.

"I work for San-Fran Banking as a Asia-Pacific expert, myself," Jack said, grimacing a bit.

"Not your favorite job is it?" Stephen asked, playfully.

"I have to work at night. You know, when China's awake." Jack replied, looking at her daughter, who had a goofy grin on her face. His eyebrows burrowed when he saw that Chuck shared that same grin.

"Oh god," Stephen asked. "I don't think I could do that." He too saw Chuck and Sarah's glances, since they weren't so discreet.

"Once, I was ordered to Tokyo when I was supposed to go to Kyoto." Jack said, sipping his drink.

"How about you, Mary?" Emma asked, intrigued. "Who do you work for these days?"

"Well, I'm working for my husband's company as a leading lawyer..." Mary responded, her stance relaxed. Stephen gave her a loving look, which Emma picked up on.

"Mom?" Chuck said, clearly agitated. "Let's not discuss work at dinner, please?"

"What else there's to discuss?" Emma said, ambush in her wake.

"There's always an alternative conversation topic," Chuck deadpanned.

"Oh, well," Jack replied, looking at Emma intently. "I think that we can stop with the memory lanes for a minute."

"Yeah, I think we can," Stephen said, raising his glass. "I'd like to propose a toast," he added, before thinking about rising up from his chair. Before his body could proceed, he remembered that Sarah couldn't rise up, so he stopped himself before it was too late. "After all those years, I had lost all hope of seeing you guys again, but here you are. After 17 years of not seeing you guys, it's an honour to have you here." Stephen started. "Charles, Sarah, just so you know, your glances are not so subtle as you think they are," Stephen said, seeing them blush heavily. "A toast to old friends!" Stephen then concluded his speech, leaving Chuck and Sarah looking at each other, thinking the same exact thing.

A/N We're both sorry for the delay and the shortness of the chapter. I've /AG been hammering through Kirk Hammett's solos with my new wah pedal. We hope to regain the pace after this chapter!